Bell Gallery hosts contemporary Chinese artists

"Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the U.S." features 26 artists who have come of age since the death of Mao Tse-tung and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976.

by Mary Jo Curtis

The conservatism of post-Tiananmen Square China drove many of the country's artists to emigrate to the West and seek more receptive venues for their work. Their misfortune - and talent - has fed a growing American interest in contemporary Chinese art and provided a bounty of work for a new traveling exhibition, one that is currently delighting visitors to the David Winton Bell Gallery.

The exhibit, "Regeneration: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and the U.S.," features 26 artists who have come of age since the death of Mao Tse-tung and the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976. Their work gives fresh expression to traditional Chinese art forms and demonstrates the wide changes in both Chinese art and culture in the last quarter century. Organized by the Samek Art Gallery at Bucknell University, this intriguing multi-media show demonstrates the vitality, creativity and breadth of post-Cultural Revolution Chinese and Chinese-American artists.

The exhibit, which will be on display through Dec. 23, features a wide range of media, from drawings and paintings, to photography and video, to sculpture and installations.

"We brought this show to Brown because many of its artists are very big on the national circuit - and because it offers a whole range of media," said Jo-Ann Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery. "It also reflects the West's growing interest in contemporary Chinese art."

According to Conklin, some of the show's featured artists gained international recognition for their avant-garde work in the late 1980s, after Mao's fall freed them from their country's cultural isolation and restrictions, and before the events of 1989 plunged China back into conservatism. Others won notice in large international exhibitions during the 1990s, while still others are currently emerging in the art world.

Although the work in this exhibition is diverse, the artists share thematic concerns.

"Some employ or appropriate traditional Chinese art forms in new ways; some investigate the significant social and cultural transformations in China. All represent the vital and rapid regeneration of contemporary life and culture in China today," said Conklin.

The artists featured in "Regeneration" are Ai Weiwei, Chen Lingyang, Hai Bo, Hong Hao, Li Yongbin, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Liu Xiaodong, Qiu Zhijie, Yu Hong, Zhang Dali, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhang Yajie, Zhao Liang; Chen Shaoxiong, Liang Juhui; Hong Lei, Hu Jieming, Xu Zhen, Zhou Xiaohu; and Cai Jin, Wenda Gu, Xiaoze Xie, Xu Bing, Yun-Fei Ji and Zhang Huan. The catalogue accompanying the exhibit includes essays by Chinese avant-garde art critic and curator Li Xianting and exhibition curators Dan Mills and Xiaoze Xie.

The Bell Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 863-2932.